This is the Oakland blog for people living out loud. True to the Oakbook philosophy, we’ll tell you where to go, what to do, and what’s really going down in the town and around the Bay. From parties to films, peace protests to flag football, if there's a there there, we'll blog it.
Invite us to things. We're great at parties.
If you've got events, photos, videos, announcements or general news on all the happenings in the Bay, send 'em over to Kwan Booth at kwan (at) theoakbook.com. And don't be afraid to leave a comment. Don't be shy...come over and talk to us. You just might get lucky!
Now if all my recent talk of dancing’s got you in the mood to shake a tail feather, but neither house music or b-boying gets your booty bumping, how about a dose of Zydeco? Tonight The Zydeco Flames are bringing a lil’ Cajun heat to Berkeley:
“The Bay Area’s Zydeco Flames have issued six CDs of hot zydeco dance music (the latest is 2006’s “Fire It Up”) and shared stages with most of the greats of the style at dances and festivals up and down the West Coast. Fifteen years ago accordionist Bruce Gordon teamed up with singer-rubboard player Lloyd Meadows to play at parties, including the premiere of the documentary film on Cajun and zydeco music, “J’ai ete au Bal.” Soon they expanded to a full band carrying on in the tradition of Clifton Chenier, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Queen Ida. Gordon has gone on to other bands, and the longtime core group is Lloyd Meadows with electric guitarist Frank Bohan, bassist-singer Timm Walker, and drummer William Allums Jr. Their accordion slot is often filled by Billy Wilson or Andre Thierry. The Flames have performed at just about every important event in the Bay Area, from the Black and White Ball to the San Francisco Jazz Festival, as well as countless Louisiana, Cajun, and zydeco fests.”
And if the music’s not enough to get you in the spot, how about doing it for a good cause? The night is also fund raiser for Edwin Thaxter, Ashkenaz’ doorman, whose son Courtney has been in a coma battling meningitis.-Kwan
Or not so boring. By all descriptions Zach Plague’s debut novel is a rollicking good skewer of hipsters, the art scene and most commonly held notions of book layout and typography.
“When the mysterious gray book that drives their twisted relationship goes missing, Ollister and Adelaide lose their post-modern marbles. He plots revenge against art patriarch The Platypus, while she obsesses over their anti-love affair. Meanwhile, the art school set experiments with bad drugs, bad sex, and bad ideas. But none of these desperate young minds has counted on the intrusion of a punk named Punk and his potent sex drug. This wild slew of characters get caught up in the gravitational pull of The Platypus’ giant art ball, where a confused art terrorism cell threatens a ludicrous and hilarious implosion.”
See? That doesn’t sound dull at all. Plague calls the project a” hybrid typo/graphic novel” which also doubles a series of folded posters. So even if you aren’t feeling the words, you can always bliss out on the pretty pictures. Check him out tonight at Pegasus.-kwanRead the rest of this entry »
Tonight is a celebration of the good times and a chance to look forward to some new dopeness as DJ Ooh Child, resident beat conductor for the Oakland Zoo Crew, bids the Bay adieu as he kicks rocks to the Philipines for a while. Child has been holding down the tables since the monthly skate, hip hop and street art party first kicked off almost a year ago and the folks plan on sending him off in style.
Tonight features artwork and music by J2 and special guests Destruments. Come show love for one of the bay’s finest.-kwan
While national poetry month is tucked into 2008 history, poems have been heavy in the Bay Area air for the last few weeks as poets and spoken word artists have been opening their notebooks and spitting verses on stages across the area. Oakland, Berzerkeley and San Fran all recently held their qualifiers for this year’s national slam. The API set repped the page hard at this past weekend’s feature showcase at Eastside Arts Alliance, and tonight Poetry Diversified Oakland features the Wordslanger-Ayodele Nzinga.
Ayodele is like the Muhammad Ali of poetry-the people champ. For the last 7 years she’s been using poetry, especially Shakespeare, to teach urban youth over at the Prescott Joseph Center in West Oakland the ways of the world, from adapting Romeo and Juliet into a coming of age hood tale to remixing the Merchant of Venice with hip hop lyrics.
Tonight the poet “most likely to shatter your illusions of what poetry is, can be, will do, has done” will be holding down the stage with original verses and her own very original performance style. And I know it’s poetry and lyrics we’re talking about here, but sometimes some words just can’t do other words justice, so check the video of a set recorded in West Oakland recently. Word up. -kwanRead the rest of this entry »
We all know that housing prices in the Bay reached comethefuckon levels quite a while back, and that if you’re an artist looking for a place to hang your hat as well as your canvas/drum kit/photo equipment, chances are you’re going to have to open a vein, promise your 1st and 2nd born child, then get a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) gig in order to afford your own piece of the California real estate pie. And that’s if you’re one of the lucky ones.
Well, 11 working artists are going to get really lucky, as the Noodle Factory has extended it’s call for applicants for it’s new live work arts complex in West Oakland. Once a staple in the West O underground warehouse scene, Noodle is in the process of being converted into 11 live work units, specially priced for working artists and artisans. (You can read the Novometro article about the conversion here.)
In addition to prices ranging from $175,000 to $275,000, the totally green, LEED certified project includes a new rehearsal area, theater and performance space and a cafe. And a deal with the Northern California Land Trust ensures that the units will remain low cost well into the foreseeable future.
The Noodle Factory is hosting an open house today from 6:30 to 8:30 for artists interested in applying for the units and organizations interested in renting the performance space. Be warned: the project is still in the construction phases so expect a little grunge and grit.-kwanRead the rest of this entry »
Anyone who’s ever “missed the loving” of soul great Lou Rawls, or just needs to hear a fine rendition of “God Bless the Child” should head over to Yoshi’s Oakland tonight for the release of “Live at Yoshi’s - A Salute to Lou,” the latest CD by Oakland jazz vocalist Nicolas Bearde. Recorded Live at Yoshi’s, October 2007, the album tips a hat to the great bluesman with covers of standards including “God Bless the Child”, “You’re Gonna Miss my Loving” and “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water” alongside Bearde’s renditions of work by Bill Withers, Max Roach and Abby Lincoln.
Bearde, a professional singer, actor and voice-over artist, has been performing in the Bay Area jazz and blues scene for almost 30 years, cutting his teeth first at San Francisco’s infamous Pasand nightclub and later with Bobby McFerrin’s world renowned “Voicestra” vocal ensemble in the 80’s. He’s released two albums-1998’s “Crossing the Line”, and the 2004 follow-up “All About Love” while touring the world from Tokyo to the Bay. Check out his performance of “Never Let Me Go” in the clip above and head to Yoshi’s tonight for more.-KwanRead the rest of this entry »
The company that launched a million blogs turns 5 today.
It was just 5 short years ago that Matt and the WP team unveiled the publishing platform that essentially changed the way people viewed media and content creation (sorry Blogger) and made it so much easier for people (including our grateful OB staff) to share their inner most feelings, political commentary and pictures of their cats in amazingly compromising positions with the rest of the world.
So if you’re like a bazillion other people and currently run a WordPress blog or three, get your hind parts over to 111 Minna tonight and toast the company that made it all possible. Or if you’re the antisocial type (as are a lot of bloggers) just come through, get toasted, hear some tunes, stare at the crowd then come home and blog about it. It’s all in the spirit of the party.-kwan
Tonight Moe’s Books in Berkeley hosts a reading by two prominent local mystery writers:
Domenic Stansberry is an Edgar Award winning novelist known for his dark, innovative crime novels, many of which are set in and around San Francisco. His most recent, The Ancient Rain, takes place in the aftermath of 9/ll, when a federal prosecutor re-opens murder charges in a politically charged slaying that occurred some thirty years before. The ghosts of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army–the group that kidnapped Patti Hearst–haunt the streets of San Francisco, intermingling with contemporary demons in this chilling political novel. The Ancient Rain is the third installment of the critically acclaimed series featuring North Beach detective Dante Mancuso. “This brilliantly imagined version of real events packs an emotional wallop genre fiction rarely delivers.” (Kirkus, in a starred review of The Ancient Rain.)
Berkeley author Cornelia Read knows old-school WASP culture firsthand, having been born into the tenth (and last) generation of her mother’s family to live on Oyster Bay’s Centre Island. She was subsequently raised near Big Sur by divorced hippie-renegade parents. Her childhood mentors included Sufis, surfers, single moms, Black Panthers, Ansel Adams, draft dodgers, striking farmworkers, and Henry Miller’s toughest ping-pong rival. From this acclaimed author of A Field of Darkness comes another compelling novel, The Crazy School, which again features the acerbic and memorable voice of ex-debutante Madeline Dare. Madeline Dare has finally escaped rust-belt Syracuse, New York, for the lush Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. After her husband’s job offer falls through, Maddie signs on as a teacher at the Santangelo Academy, a boarding school for disturbed teenagers. Behind the academy’s ornate gates, she discovers a disturbing realm where students and teachers alike must submit to the founder’s bizarre therapeutic regimen. Cut off from the outside world, Maddie must join forces with a small band of the school’s most violently rebellious students-kids whose troubled grip on reality may well prove to be her only chance of salvation. Read the rest of this entry »
Tonight 21 Grand welcomes Avant Garde Tuba player Carl Ludwig Hubsch for a night of improvised play and experimentation with San Francisco’s experimental music ensemble, sfSoundgroup.
Following an improvised duo with local percussionist virtuoso Gino Robair, Mr. Hübsch will lead sfSound in two of his compositions for large ensemble.The sfSoundGroup has been presenting innovative and challenging concerts throughout the Bay Area since 1999. A true 21st century ensemble, the group has an extraordinary roster of Bay Area composers and performers whose virtuosic and “extended” instrumental abilities are equally balanced with their involvement in composition, electronic sound, performance art, computer audio programming, and experimental instrument making.
The group also frequently presents existing work in highly creative “radical transcriptions” blurring the lines between performance, composition, interpretation, and improvisation. Performing as sfSound are: Heather Frasch - flute, Kyle Bruckmann - oboe, Matt Ingalls - clarinets, Jacob Lindsay -clarinets, John Ingle - alto saxophone, Tom Dambly - trumpet, John Shiurba - guitar, Kjell Nordeson - vibraphone, Gino Robair - percussion, Alexa Beattie - viola, Jorge Boehringer - viola, Monica Scott - cello, and Richard Worn - contrabass. Read the rest of this entry »
No matter if you’re a rapper or an heiress, a bona fide star or a wannabe mogul, you might want to check out tonight’s free movie screening for the behind the scenes dope on the diamond industry. In her 1st film, Hip Hop journalist and editor Raquel Capeda takes an investigative look inside the world of Bling with a cast of unsuspecting, but jewel encrusted hip hop impresarios.
Rappers Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan, Paul Wall and Tego Calderon travel to war-torn Sierra Leone, West Africa, and get a crash course in “blood diamonds” The dirty not to little secret of the multi million dollar industry so deeply entwined in hip-hop. The film explores the cultural significance of diamond jewelry in hip-hop and traces its evolution from early ’80s old-school ghetto culture to the bling-encrusted billion-dollar industry it is today. Featuring Ishmael Beah, best-selling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and interviews with Kanye West, Big Daddy Kane, Jadakiss and Mr. T. There will be a community discussion following the screening.
“The Bay Area’s Zydeco Flames have issued six CDs of hot zydeco dance music (the latest is 2006’s “Fire It Up”) and shared stages with most of the greats of the style at dances and festivals up and down the West Coast. Fifteen years ago accordionist Bruce Gordon teamed up with singer-rubboard player Lloyd Meadows to play at parties, including the premiere of the documentary film on Cajun and zydeco music, “J’ai ete au Bal.” Soon they expanded to a full band carrying on in the tradition of Clifton Chenier, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Queen Ida. Gordon has gone on to other bands, and the longtime core group is Lloyd Meadows with electric guitarist Frank Bohan, bassist-singer Timm Walker, and drummer William Allums Jr. Their accordion slot is often filled by Billy Wilson or Andre Thierry. The Flames have performed at just about every important event in the Bay Area, from the Black and White Ball to the San Francisco Jazz Festival, as well as countless Louisiana, Cajun, and zydeco fests.”
Or not so boring. By all descriptions Zach Plague’s debut novel is a rollicking good skewer of hipsters, the art scene and most commonly held notions of book layout and typography.
Domenic Stansberry
Berkeley author 
No matter if you’re a rapper or an heiress, a bona fide star or a wannabe mogul, you might want to check out tonight’s free movie screening for the behind the scenes dope on the diamond industry. In her 1st film, Hip Hop journalist and editor Raquel Capeda takes an investigative look inside the world of Bling with a cast of unsuspecting, but jewel encrusted hip hop impresarios.